‘Twas the middle of winter deep,
When all sane critters are fast asleep,
This Canuck sent invitations
For a snowy celebration.
“Join me for lunch!” the invite said.
“The drinks are free!” it further read.
And so they came, in ones and twos
- free drinks, of course, they can’t refuse.
Before arriving here the three things which interested me most were,—the state of society amongst the higher classes, the condition of the convicts, and the degree of attraction sufficient to induce persons to emigrate. Of course, after so very short a visit one's opinion is worth scarcely any thing; but it is as difficult not to form some opinion, as it is to form a correct judgment. On the whole, from what I heard, more than from what I saw, I was disappointed in the state of society. The whole community is rancorously divided into parties on almost every subject. Among those, who from their station in life ought to be the best, many live in such open profligacy, that respectable people cannot associate with them. There is much jealousy between the children of the rich emancipist and the free settlers; the former being pleased to consider honest men as interlopers. The whole population, poor and rich, are bent on acquiring wealth; amongst the higher orders wool and sheep-grazing form the constant subject of conversation. The very low ebb of literature is strongly marked by the emptiness of the booksellers' shops; for they are inferior even to those in the smaller country-towns of England.
There are many serious drawbacks to the comforts of families; the chief of which, perhaps, is being surrounded by convict servants. How thoroughly odious to every feeling to be waited on by a man, who the day before, perhaps, was flogged, from your representation, for some trifling misdemeanor. The female servants are, of course, much worse; hence children learn the vilest expressions, and it is fortunate if not equally vile ideas.
On the other hand, the capital of a person without any trouble on his part, produces him treble interest to what it will in England; and with care he is sure to grow rich. The luxuries of life are in abundance and very little dearer, and most articles of food cheaper, than in England. The climate is splendid and quite healthy; but to my mind its charms are lost by the uninviting aspect of the country. Settlers possess a great advantage in finding their sons of service, when very young. At the age of from sixteen to twenty they frequently take charge of distant farming stations; this, however, must happen at the expense of their boys associating entirely with convict servants. I am not aware that the tone of society has assumed any peculiar character; but with such habits, and without intellectual pursuits, it can hardly fail to deteriorate. My opinion is such that nothing but rather severe necessity should compel me to emigrate.
The rapid prosperity and future prospects of this colony are to me, not understanding these subjects, very puzzling. The two main exports are wool and whale-oil; and to both of these productions there is a limit. The country is totally unfit for canals; therefore there is a line not very distant, beyond which the land carriage of wool will not repay the expense of shearing and tending sheep. Pasture everywhere is so thin, that settlers have already pushed far into the interior: moreover the country further inland becomes extremely poor. I have before said that agriculture can never succeed on a very extended scale; therefore so far as I can see, Australia must ultimately depend upon being the centre of commerce for the southern hemisphere, and perhaps on her future manufactories. Possessing coal, she always has the moving power at hand. From the habitable country extending along the coast, and from her English extraction she is sure to be a maritime nation. I formerly imagined that Australia would rise to be as grand and powerful a country as North America; but now it appears to me such future grandeur is rather problematical.
On the whole, as a place of punishment the object is scarcely gained; as a real system of reform it has failed, as perhaps would every other plan: but as a means of making men outwardly honest,—of converting vagabonds most useless in one hemisphere into active citizens of another, and thus giving birth to a new and splendid country—a grand centre of civilization—it has succeeded to a degree perhaps unparalleled in history.
The plain of Bathurst is upwards of two thousand one hundred feet above the level of the sea—an elevation which compensates for ten degrees of latitude, the vegetation at Bathurst being exactly similar in its character to that of Van Dieman's' Land, ten degrees farther to the south. This elevation is remarkably conducive to the general health of the district, Bathurst being unquestionably the Montpellier of New South Wales. The cheeks of the children beyond the mountains have a rosy tint, which is seldom observable in the lowlands of the colony; and diseases which affect the human frame in other parts of the territory are there in great measure unknown. For persons exhibiting a tendency to phthisis pulmonalis, medical men consider the climate of Bathurst as perhaps the most favourable in the world, both from the mild temperature and the rarefaction of the air. A gentleman possessed of considerable property in the Bathurst district had long been a victim to an asthmatic affection in the mother country, and was so ill during his residence in Sydney, that he could not venture to go to bed, but had uniformly to spend the night leaning his head on his arms at a table: on ascending the Blue Mountains, however, he found, to his great surprise and delight, that the distressing affection had completely left him. He resided for several years in perfect health in the Bathurst district; but in occasionally coming to Sydney on business, he found that the affection uniformly returned when he reached a certain level in descending towards the low country on the coast. As the presence or absence of the asthmatic affection did not depend in the least on the state of the weather, the case can only be accounted for from the greatly diminished denseness of the atmosphere on the elevated table-land of the western interior. In short, I am inclined to believe that there is no country on the face of the globe so well adapted for the residence of persons either suffering, under, or threatened with, affections of the lungs, or for the refitting of shattered India constitutions, as the district of Bathurst in New South Wales.
A "squatter" is a freed, or "ticket of leave" man, who builds a hut with bark on unoccupied ground, buys or steals a few animals, sells spirits without a licence, receives stolen goods, —and so at last becomes rich and turns farmer: he is the horror of all his honest neighbours. A "crawler" is an assigned convict, who runs away, and lives how he can, by labour and petty theft. The "bush ranger" is an open villain, who subsists by highway robbery and plunder: generally he is desperate, and will sooner be killed than taken alive. In the country it is necessary to understand these three names, for they are in common use.
Bathurst has a singular and not very inviting appearance. Groups of small houses and a few large ones are scattered rather thickly over two or three miles of a bare country, which is divided into numerous fields by lines of rails. A good many gentlemen live in the neighbourhood, and some possess very comfortable houses. A hideous little red brick church stands by itself on a hill; and barracks and government buildings occupy the centre of the township. I was told not to form too bad an opinion of the country by judging from that on the road-side, nor too good a one from Bathurst; in this latter respect I did not feel myself in the least danger of being prejudiced. It must be confessed that the season had been one of great drought, and that the country did not wear a favourable aspect; although I understand it was incomparably worse two or three months before. The secret of the rapidly growing prosperity of Bathurst is, that the brown pasture which appears to the stranger's eye so wretched is excellent for sheep-grazing.
Cannibal snails have long borne some degree of notoriety as a result of an early account by Edgar Layard (1824 – 1900), one-time curator at the South African Museum. In this he referred to a specimen of N. cafra collected by 'the late Mr H.J. McKen, who told me he procured it on a battlefield in Zululand, feeding on the putrefying corpses of the natives slain in one of their tribal fights'. Even less credible is a lurid account by the Rev. A.H. Cooke, in which he quotes Layard to the effect that the best time to collect Natalina in quantity is after tribal conflicts 'when they might be observed streaming from all points of the compass towards the field of slaughter'!
Not surprisingly, these reports have never been confirmed, but they are not beyond possibility. In captivity, N. cafra will readily devour minced beef and the smaller, southern Cape species N. trimeni (Melvill & Ponsonby, 1892) has been seen attempting to get at dead mice caught in mammal traps ...
A word of caution is perhaps necessary here. Local conchologist Markus Lussi tells of an instance when he rescued a medium sized specimen of N. cafra from the path of the lawn mower, whereupon the snail twisted its neck around 'at lightning speed' and bit him on the thumb, leaving a half centimetre cut, deep enough to bleed.
The first bite, during which the radula is thrust out of the mouth, is accompanied by a slow-motion lunge and usually results in a deep gash in the victim's skin, often exposing the viscera. Then, with subsequent bites, the victim is gradually drawn into the mouth and swallowed. Even sizeable slugs such as species of Elisolimax and Laevicaulis can be devoured in as few as six bites.
A little time before this I had been lying on a sunny bank, and was reflecting on the strange character of the animals of this country as compared with the rest of the world. An unbeliever in every thing beyond his own reason might exclaim, "Two distinct Creators must have been at work; their object, however, has been the same, and certainly the end in each case is complete." While thus thinking, I observed the hollow conical pitfall of the lion-ant: first a fly fell down the treacherous slope and immediately disappeared; then came a large but unwary ant; its struggles to escape being very violent, those curious little jets of sand, described by Kirby as being flirted by the insects tail, were promptly directed against the expected victim. But the ant enjoyed a better fate than the fly, and escaped the fatal jaws which lay concealed at the base of the conical hollow. There can be no doubt but that this predacious larva belongs to the same genus with the European kind, though to a different species. Now what would the sceptic say to this? Would any two workmen ever have hit upon so beautiful, so simple, and yet so artificial a contrivance? It cannot be thought so: one Hand has surely worked throughout the universe.
Elements of the past and the future combining to make something not quite as good as either.
Govett's Leap and Grose River Valley, Blue Mountains, New South WalesVery early in the morning, I walked about three miles to see Govett's Leap: a view of a similar but even perhaps more stupendous character than that near the Weatherboard. So early in the day the gulf was filled with a thin blue haze, which, although destroying the general effect, added to the apparent depth at which the forest was stretched below the country on which we were standing. Soon after leaving the Blackheath, we descended from the sandstone platform by the pass of Mount Victoria. To effect this pass, an enormous quantity of stone has been cut through; the design, and its manner of execution, would have been worthy of any line of road in England, — even that of Holyhead. We now entered upon a country less elevated by nearly a thousand feet, and consisting of granite. With the change of rock, the vegetation improved; the trees were both finer, and stood further apart; and the pasture between them was a little greener, and more plentiful.
Although having bad sport, we enjoyed a pleasant ride. The woodland is generally so open that a person on horseback can gallop through it. It is traversed by a few flat-bottomed valleys, which are green and free from trees: in such spots the scenery was like that of a park, and pretty. In the whole country I scarcely saw a place without the marks of fire; whether these had been more or less recent — whether the stumps were more or less black, was the greatest change which varied the uniformity, so wearisome to the traveller's eye. In these woods there are not many birds; I saw, however, some large flocks of the white cockatoo feeding in a corn-field, and a few most beautiful parrots; crows like our jackdaws were not uncommon, and another bird something like the magpie. The English have not been very particular in giving names to the productions of Australia; trees of one genus (Casuarina) are called oaks for no one reason that I can discover, without it is that there is no one point of resemblance. Some quadrupeds are called tigers and hyenas, simply because they are carnivorous, and so on in many other cases.
In the dusk of the evening I took a stroll along a chain of ponds, which in this dry country represented the course of a river, and had the good fortune to see several of the famous Platypus, or Ornithorhyncus paradoxus. They were diving and playing about the surface of the water, but showed so little of their bodies that they might easily have been mistaken for water-rats. Mr. Browne shot one: certainly it is a most extraordinary animal; the stuffed specimens do not at all give a good idea of the recent appearance of its head and beak; the latter becoming hard and contracted.
Whelk Trivia
- Whelks (Buccinum undatum) are a shellfood eaten around the world, and you can find them in just about any restaurant.
- Queen Victoria of England was said to be fond of whelks. Other whelk fans include the singer Madonna and former First Lady Nancy Reagan
Banana slugs are a variety of mollusk that look like bananas.
Although the term "giant squid" is often used to refer to any large species of squid, giant squid are actually one specific family of squid, separate from, for example, the even larger Collosal [sic] Squid.
While "octopi" is the popularly use plural form of "octopus" and is sometimes listed as such in dictionaries [2], it is incorrect [3], with the strictly accepted plurals being "octopuses" and "octopodes". Scholars working with cephalopods have settled on the usage of "octopuses" as plural for "octopus" in the narrow sense refering to species within the family Octopodidae[4] and "octopods" the plural to refer more broadly to all species within the order Octopoda[5].
there's no such thing as an arboreal octopus and 'venom' and 'poison' are not the same thing FunGuy 09:23, 26 July 2007 (EDT)
From so grand a title as Blue Mountains, and from their absolute altitude, I expected to have seen a bold chain of mountains crossing the country; but instead of this, a sloping plain presents merely an inconsiderable front to the low land of the coast. From this first slope, the view of the extensive woodland to the eastward, was striking, and the surrounding trees grew bold and lofty. But when once on the sandstone platform, the scenery becomes exceedingly monotonous; each side of the road is bordered by scrubby trees of the never-failing Eucalyptus family; and with the exception of two or three small inns, there are no houses, or cultivated land: the road, moreover, is solitary; the most frequent object being a bullock-waggon, piled up with bales of wool.
By following down a little valley and its tiny rill of water, an immense gulf is unexpectedly seen through the trees which border the pathway, at the depth of perhaps 1500 feet. Walking on a few yards one stands on the brink of a vast precipice, and below is the grand bay or gulf (for I know not what other name to give it), thickly covered with forest. The point of view is situated as if at the head of a bay, the line of cliff diverging on each side, and showing headland behind headland, as on a bold sea-coast. These cliffs are composed of horizontal strata of whitish sandstone; and so absolutely vertical are they, that in many places, a person standing on the edge, and throwing down a stone, can see it strike the trees in the abyss below. So unbroken is the line, that it is said, in order to reach the foot of the waterfall, formed by this little stream, it is necessary to go a distance of sixteen miles round. About five miles distant in front, another line of cliff extends, which thus appears completely to encircle the valley; and hence the name of bay is justified, as applied to this grand amphitheatrical depression. If we imagine a winding harbour, with its deep water surrounded by bold cliff-like shores, laid dry, and a forest sprung up on its sandy bottom, we should then have the appearance and structure here exhibited. This kind of view was to me quite novel, and extremely magnificent.
Although its scientific name honours British naturalist Benjamin Leadbeater, its common name commemorates another man. Major Mitchell's cockatoo is a bird of inland Australia, where it is widespread but not abundant.[This cockatoo] was rarely noticed, and it appeared to come from a distance, flying usually very high. The pink-coloured wings and glowing crest of this beautiful bird might have embellished the air of a more voluptuous region; and indeed, from its transient visits, it did not seem quite at home on the banks of the Darling.
But the air, however much adorned by the feathered race, had its thieves, as well as the earth. The crows were amazingly bold, always accompanying us from camp to camp. It was absolutely necessary to watch our meat while in kettles on the fire and, on one occasion, notwithstanding our cook's vigilance, a piece of pork weighing three pounds was taken from a boiling pot and carried off by one of these birds! The hawks were equally voracious. A pigeon had been no sooner shot by Burnett than an audacious hawk carried it away and, as if fearless of a similar fate, he flew but a very short distance from the fowler before he had taken half the feathers off.
The roads were excellent, and made upon the MacAdam principle: whinstone having been brought for the purpose from the distance of several miles. The road appeared much frequented by all sorts of carriages; and I met two stage-coaches. In all these respects there was a close resemblance to England; perhaps the number of alehouses was here in excess.
The extreme uniformity of the vegetation is the most remarkable feature in the landscape of the greater part of New South Wales. Everywhere we have an open woodland; the ground being partially covered with a very thin pasture. The trees nearly all belong to one family; and mostly have the surface of their leaves placed in a vertical, instead of as in Europe, a nearly horizontal position: the foliage is scanty, and of a peculiar, pale green tint, without any gloss. Hence the woods appear light and shadowless: this, although a loss of comfort to the traveller under the scorching rays of summer, is of importance to the farmer, as it allows grass to grow where it otherwise could not. The leaves are not shed periodically: this character appears common to the entire southern hemisphere, namely, South America, Australia, and the Cape of Good Hope. The inhabitants of this hemisphere and of the intertropical regions, thus lose perhaps one of the most glorious, though to our eyes common, spectacles in the world, — the first bursting into full foliage of the leafless tree. They may, however, say that we pay dearly for our spectacle, by having the land covered with mere naked skeletons for so many months. This is too true; but our senses thus acquire a keen relish for the exquisite green of the spring, which the eyes of those living within the tropics, sated during the long year with the gorgeous productions of those glowing climates, can never experience. The greater number of the trees, with the exception of some of the blue gums, do not attain a large size; but they grow tall and tolerably straight, and stand well apart. The bark of some falls annually, or hangs dead in long shreds, which swing about with the wind; and hence the woods appear desolate and untidy. Nowhere is there an appearance of verdure, but rather that of arid sterility. I cannot imagine a more complete contrast in every respect than between the forests of Valdivia, or Chiloe, and the woods of Australia.
The agricultural crops, and often those in gardens, are estimated to fail once in three years; and this has even happened on successive years. Hence the colony cannot supply itself with the bread and vegetables, which its inhabitants consume. It is essentially pastoral, and chiefly so for sheep, and not the larger quadrupeds.
It may be faithfully compared to the large suburbs which stretch out from London and a few other great towns: but not even near London or Birmingham is there an aspect of such rapid growth; the number of large houses just finished and others building is truly surprising; nevertheless every one complains of the high rents and difficulty in procuring a house. In the streets gigs, phaetons & carriages with livery servants are driving about; of the latter many are extremely well equipped. Coming from South America, where in the towns every man of property is known, no one thing surprised me more, than not readily being able to ascertain to whom this or that carriage belonged.
Many of the older residents say that formerly they knew every face in the Colony, but now that in a morning's ride it is a chance if they know one. Sydney has a population of 23,000, and is as I have said rapidly increasing; it must contain much wealth. It appears a man of business can hardly fail to make a large fortune. I saw on all sides fine houses — one built by the profits from steam-vessels — another from building, and so on. An auctioneer who was a convict, it is said intends to return home and will take with him £100,000. Another who is always driving about in his carriage, has an income so large that scarcely anybody ventures to guess at it — the least assigned being £15,000 a year. But the two crowning facts are — first that the public revenue has increased £60,000 during this last year, and secondly that less than an acre of land within the town of Sydney sold for £8,000 sterling.
Tourism officials in Australia are describing it as "the best job in the world".
They want someone to work on a tropical island off the Queensland coast.
No formal qualifications are needed but candidates must be willing to swim, snorkel, dive and sail.
In return, the successful applicant will receive a salary of A$150,000 ($103,000, £70,000) for six months and get to live rent-free in a three-bedroom villa, complete with pool.
I love parrots but we here up north fear the oily, green, caustic excrement of the Torresian Imperial Pigeon (Ducula bicolor) moreso than the innocuous watery goop coming out of a red-collared's cloaca. It reminds me of "Alien" blood (sense Ridley Scott). You don't want it on your bare skin.And you all thought that the snakes, spiders and box jellyfish were bad in Australia. Even our pigeons cause havoc!
Around Darwin these pigeons, large enough to eject 200-300mls of the stuff in one "hit", eat mostly Carpentaria Palm nuts (these palms grow in abundance in the suburbs) and the mess it makes takes a high pressure hose to remove if left to dry. I've seen two birds roosting in a tree for a single night completely cover the top of a large wheely bin and gum it up so that you had to crack the stuff off with a screw driver to open the lid. It's death to any paintwork if left for more than 24 hours. I've even seen it harden in the sun and peel off a car's paintwork as it curls up at the edges.
I still love seeing the birds around (though I park under cover). W
Grey planthopper (Anzora unicolor)
The thorn-like Green planthopper (Siphanta acuta), not even slightly weird
10,000 Birds is loaded with parrotlicious goodness this month. Why? Not only are parrots gorgeous and fascinating birds but many of them are also in serious trouble from habitat modification, over-collection and hunting. Read about them and ponder the fate of this wonderful group of birds. 
Teenage dusky moorhen (Gallinula tenebrosa) looking for an old bird to help across the pond
Moorhen chick prepares itself for teenage-hood.
On the lookout for more food
Adult taking some responsibility for its actions. Or possibly that of another pair. Who knows? Certainly not this moorhen.
2008 started in a way in which I hope it won't continue. That is, with me sitting a metre away from a pedestal fan, a wet towel around my neck and Drop the Dead Donkey on the video while I worked on some uni business. After a top temperature of 42C at 5 pm, it was still 33C at midnight. It's now a balmy 29C, having dropped 11C in less than half an hour. Woo hoo! Bring on the glaciers.
You've probably seen the recent news item about the Polish chap who received a priority mail letter 14 days after it had been sent. The letter had been posted only 11 km away. According to his calculations, a garden snail could have delivered it more rapidly than the Warsaw mail man.
[Survival of the cutest] applies to snakes as much s it does to other species.
It's not one of the more exciting camaenids. It's small and — frankly — a bit dull. (See for yourself here.) But the boggomoss snail has one interesting trait — it is a short range endemic. And that has left it in deep doo doo.
Great egret and white ibis on the Esplanade in Cairns, Far North Queensland, late afternoon.
Only a couple of weeks ago I was wandering around the tropical north, enjoying the scenery, eating sensibly and generally having a good time.
On 1st July 1858, Charles Lyell and Joseph Hooker read extracts of two scientific works to the Linnean Society in London. The material was not their own. Lyell and Hooker presented it on behalf of the authors, neither of whom could attend the meeting. One — Charles Darwin — was at home in Downe, mourning the death of his infant son. The other — Alfred Russel Wallace — was stuck in Dorey (now Manokwari) in New Guinea. So Lyell and Hooker did the honours for them.
The tide was on its way in at Shelly Beach, near Portland, when I got there so I didn't spend much time beachcombing. But I braved the incoming Southern Ocean and the squalls to have a brief rummage through the piles of stranded shells. Who could resist? Not me, that's for sure.
Never get on the wrong side of a kangaroo. A jogger in Sunbury (NW of Melbourne) inadvertently separated a male Eastern Grey Kangaroo (Macropus giganteus) from its mob and suffered the consequences.
I play guitar like this. Oh, wait, I don't play guitar at all. But I do have nails like that. At least, I did before I cut them. Bugger. I suck at this game.
For the past few weeks, I've been stuck at home, at work or in the car going between home and work. I know what season it is because the Spring Racing Carnival is on at Flemington (a long stroll or short drive along Ballarat Road from my house). There are also some seasonal clues in the garden. Here's what's blooming at the Snail Shell this week. (Not including the weeds.) This is what's keeping me sane …
Driven to distraction by (apparently) falling standards, associate editor Simon Heffer of The Daily Telegraph sent a memo to the newspaper's staff. The Guardian, known for the occasional typo*, picked up his email and shared it with the world. Here's a snippet.
